Pushing Daisies: "Dummy" Review

Does the second episode maintain the brilliance on display in the pilot?

Pushing Daisies was probably the best pilot of the new season. It's funny, moving, inventive, and original in almost every sense of the world. It's a show that nobody has seen before. It was also tough to imagine how it would play out episode by episode because the pilot seemed so self contained. And there's the question of how long the series could maintain the whimsical nature of the narrative and the over-the-top style found in its premiere episode. Now that the second episode has aired, some of those questions have some tentative answers.

The excellent cast continue their top notch performances. The chemistry between Anna Friel and Lee Pace is some of the best on television, and it's all heightened by the fact that they cannot touch - not ever. Chi McBride is a terrific presence here and has some of the funniest moments. The show has already managed to get Kristin Chenoweth to sing, in a clever sequence that doesn't quite go all the way into musical territory (as she is really singing, the cleaning crew guy just can't hear her&#Array;).

What works less here is the onslaught of eccentricity and whimsy that fills every frame. While there was certainly a level of this in the pilot, there was also more done in that episode to ground the show and balance out the more fantastic elements. Here, everything just seems so off kilter to the point where each new element begins to lose its intended effect.

There's also the matter of the voice over by Jim Dale. While this was used quite effectively in the pilot in order to deliver a heavy load of necessary exposition, here it often seems gratuitous. Rather than let the actors just have a moment, Dale's voice feels crammed into every possible silence.

Pushing Daisies operates at about this level for the full hour.

This episode's mystery involves a car that runs on dandelions, crash test dummies, a Dandelion model with an eating disorder and a taste for pie, and a myriad of other things ranging in level of eccentricity. It's never that much of a mystery who the killer is, and that part of the plot unfolds rather predictably. Of course, the particular details on a show like this are difficult to get ahead of, seeing as how everything operates on at least some level of absurdity.

Pushing Daisies rides a fine line between being genius and being just plain exhausting. It will, as always, all come down to personal taste. There will be those who absolutely love every moment and never fail to be charmed by the show's whimsical nature and surreal imagery. Others (myself included) will hope the show dials it down just - even just a little - so that the story can be allowed to have a life of its own rather than be smothered by an often overbearing style. For this is a terrific story and a great cast in a show with tons of potential.

It's difficult to fault the series for stumbling a little since they are pushing so many boundaries at once and walking a lot of high wires in an attempt to bring to television something so unique. Hopefully they'll find the balance and this series will become as great as it can be.